


i put the fate in fake date

by Archchancellor



Category: Free!
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, basic softcore cheese, happy harurin christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 09:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13245015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archchancellor/pseuds/Archchancellor
Summary: He couldn’t believe he was here, in this cafe right now, the day before Christmas Eve, asking Nanase Haruka of all people to be his fake boyfriend.





	i put the fate in fake date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tomakehimfree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomakehimfree/gifts).



> Happy New Year, tomakehimfree! I was your gifter/gift-sender/thingy for the exchange!! Sorry for the delay in getting this up but I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you like it too! I ended up taking some liberties with the prompt ahaha

A frustrating fact of life, Rin had learned, was that it required supernatural skills of perception to differentiate between the rather wide selection of deadpan expressions in Nanase Haruka’s repertoire. They ranged from _This is so annoying_ and _I’d rather be swimming right now_ , to _Maybe if pretend I can’t understand him, he’ll stop asking me about my diet_ and even the rare _I can’t believe this heathen doesn’t even know who Angy-kun, neighbor of Loosy-kun in the underwater expansion pack, is. Why do I associate with him?_

 

Rin, however, had had the privilege of frequently being on the receiving end of these looks and had over the years (with a truly saint-like amount of patience, if he could say so himself), slowly begun to decipher the Haru-to-Japanese dictionary. He was no veteran like Makoto, but you didn’t have to be one to figure out that Haru’s current expression was the equivalent of a disgruntled  _what the fuck_.

 

A lesser man may have dropped the matter, switched conversation topics and even offered to foot the bill. But Matsuoka Rin was nothing if not persistent in the face of failure and besides, he way paying for Haru anyway. He steeled himself and repeated the question.

 

“No.”

 

“Come on, Haru, It’s only for the weekend—”

 

“No. Is this why you lured me out here?”

 

“I didn’t _lure—_ ”

 

“Rin.”

 

Rin sighed in frustration. He’d known that this would happen. He couldn’t believe he was here, in this cafe right now, the day before Christmas Eve, asking Nanase Haruka of all people to be his fake boyfriend.

 

Christmas in the Matsuoka family was an elaborate affair. Rin’s mother’s sisters — his aunts — came down from Tokyo every year, with presents and children. There would be so much food that everyone would be required to eat leftover fried chicken and plum cake all the way until the new year. It just so happened that one of Rin’s cousins had recently gotten engaged, leading Miyako to stare nostalgically at all her wedding paraphernalia and make reproachful comments about how Unbelievably Single both of her children were. Gou had bowed out with the excuse that she had to focus on her studies, now that she was in her final year of high-school.

 

Rin had briefly enjoyed the relief that came with not having to worry about any new boyfriends (Assorted Mikoshibas aside, he had his eye on those two) before he realised that the full force of his mother’s ministrations was going to fall on him. Rest in pieces, Matsuoka.

 

“Can’t you distract yourself from your Olympic dreams long enough to meet a nice boy?” she’d scolded. Gou had popped her head out of her room, where she’d supposedly been doing some of that “studying” and cheerfully asked Rin whether she should set him up with one of her friends. “I have this senpai whom I think you’ll really like, onii-chan.” _Brat._

 

After two days of this tireless nagging, Rin had snapped and said _Actually mom, I_ am _seeing someone right now, thank you very much._ In retrospect, this wasn’t the brightest of ideas, but he was in too deep to back down now. He’d even gone so far as to say it was someone they already knew. His mother had gushed and said _of course_ Rin should invite this person over for Christmas dinner, no excuses.

 

And here they were now.

 

Haru, the asshole, had gone back to his fish as if Rin had merely proposed a request for joint practice or something. If only he knew the hours and hours of internal conflict Rin had gone through leading up to this moment. There was also the fact that the table they were seated at was painfully small, causing Rin’s knees to brush against Haru’s approximately 8 times in the past fifteen minutes. Not that he’d been counting or anything.

 

“Why can’t Yamazaki do it?” Haru said abruptly, pulling Rin out of his growing bubble of self loathing and the realization that yes, this was his life now. These were his choices.

 

“Don’t be ridiculous, Haru. I’ve known Sousuke since like, forever. He practically grew up in my house. There’s no way I’d be okay to do all that lovey-dovey shit with him, even if it’s just pretend.”

 

“But you can with me?” _Fuck._ Rin raised his head off the table. Haru had put down his chopsticks, gazing at him. He seemed genuinely curious.

 

“W-well! You’re one of the only people in town whom I actually know who's also free. Nagisa and Rei are both busy with their final exams, just like Ai. Momo would just spend the entire time fawning over Gou, which would make people think that there’s some kind of weird sibling love triangle going on. And Makoto… Makoto’s on that field trip with the kids from Iwatobi SC, right?"

 

Haru raised an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced. Rin hoped the sweat shining on his forehead wasn’t too obvious. As ever in moments of duress, Rin took to the offensive.

 

“It’s not like you were my first choice or anything, okay?” He huffed, “If I had to pick, Makoto would definitely make a better fake boyfriend.”

 

“Oh?” If Haru was annoyed, he hid it pretty well. Until he stabbed the chopsticks into his food with a tad more violence than necessary. Rin rolled his eyes. Trust Haru to be competitive to a fault, even about things like this.

 

“I’m not gonna lie, Haru. I did think about asking Sousuke at first.”

 

“...”

 

Rin scratched the back of his neck in frustration. “Look, my mom knows Sousuke too well for it to work on her. She and Gou would see through the ruse in a second.”

 

“...We’d have to lie to Gou-chan too?”

 

“Well, yeah, she’s going to be there all— wait,” Rin blinked. “Did you just say _we_?”

 

Haru pointedly looked away, chewing silently.

 

“Does that mean you’ll do it? You’ll pretend to be my boyfriend for the weekend?” Rin pressed on. He leaned forward, into Haru’s space. It really was quite a small table.

 

“It’s troublesome,” said Haru, finally looking up at Rin, “But if it’s for you… I’ll do it.”

 

 _What’s_ that _supposed to mean?_ Rin wondered if he was imagining the tinge of colour on Haru’s cheeks. He felt his own ears getting hotter and wondered why he’d thought it was a good idea to bring his face so close to Haru’s. Haru was distractingly pretty, especially now with his fringe falling into his eyes. Rin noticed that it was in need of a trim. Maybe he should offer to cut it.

 

“O-okay then. We’re going to be the best fake boyfriends ever! My family doesn’t know what they’re in for.”

 

“Fine, but you need to give me a year’s supply of mackerel.”

 

“Fuck off.”

 

  
***  *  ***  
  
  


The key to anything, as Rin always said, was practice practice practice.

 

“Now the first thing we have to do, Haru-chan, is break the touch barrier.”

 

“ _Don’t call me ch-”_

 

“Yeah yeah, now let me try something, alright?”

 

{   They’d finished their meal and moved to the park near Rin’s old elementary school. Haru had never been here before, at least in physical form. Rin was embarrassed to admit it, but many a sticky summer afternoon of his 11 year-old self had been spent on the merry-go-round waxing poetic to Sousuke and Kisumi and anyone who would listen, really, about how _Nanase is so fast, so fast!_  }

 

Rin dramatically cleared his throat and shifted closer to Haru on the bench they were sitting on, until their sides were touching. He waited for a beat. No reaction.

 

Then he tried putting his arm around Haru’s shoulders. A few seconds went by.

 

“Is that it?”

 

“What do you mean _is that it?_ This is what couples usually do, right?!”

 

“This is what you always do, though.”

 

Well shit, that was true. Rin did have a habit of throwing his arm around Haru at any given opportunity. It’s not like he could help himself, though. Whenever Haru turned his head away with that cool, unaffected air of his, it almost seemed like an open invitation for Rin to coax, charm or annoy an emotion out of him — all from an alarmingly intimate proximity.

 

Rin cleared his throat again, which for some reason had gone very dry. “Okay! It’s time for the next level. Are you ready for this, Haru?”

 

Haruka nodded, actually leaning into Rin. Fuck fuck _fuck_.

 

Okay. Rin took a few deep breaths for what he was about to do next. _You can do this, Matsuoka. You were the captain of your old swim team where you held the record for the fastest 100m free. You’re also the two-time winner of the Samezuka Academy Bishonen Contest. You’re a future Olympic gold medalist. This is nothing._

 

“Alright!” Rin removed his right arm from around Haru and reached for his hand instead. Haru yelped when their bare skin came into contact.

 

“Oi, what do you think you’re doing?”

 

“What? I’m trying to hold your hand, idiot, what does it look like?”

 

“Your hand is freezing!”

 

“Deal with it for some time! We need this to be convincing.”

 

Haru grumbled but shifted his hand into a more comfortable position. Rin was amazed at how easily their palms slotted together, their fingers interlocking. He knew from years of definitely _not_ staring at Haru’s hands that they were smaller than Rin’s own, but barely. His fingers were longer and slimmer, like an artist’s. They looked beautiful when they held a paintbrush, and every other time too. Rin had always thought (casually, _casually_ ) that they would be rough from being exposed to chlorine so often, but in fact they were quite soft. He briefly wondered if Haru used any special hand-cream to make them that way. Maybe he should buy some for himself too? Such thoughts were what kept Rin from dissociating on the spot because fuck, _Nanase Haruka was holding his hand._

 

But above all, he couldn’t help but notice that the gaps between Haru’s fingers were the perfect size for Rin’s own. It was almost as if, curse his stupid romantic heart, his hand was made to hold Haru’s.

 

“How does it feel?” This was from Haru. He sounded a bit odd, but Rin couldn’t meet his eye.

 

“Fine! Perfectly fine. How about you?”

 

“...good.”

 

“Great! Wonderful! Absolutely dandy. Now it’s time for the next _next_ level. Hang on Haru, because this is a big one.”

 

“Blowjobs?”

 

“ _WHA—NO!_ No, of course not! _”_ Rin spluttered as Haru let out a small laugh. “Haru, you…”

 

Rin willed the warmth out of his face. _That_ was a mental image he definitely did not need now, not with Haru right next to him. Talk about going from zero to hundred.

 

“I meant kissing! Kissing, okay?”

 

“You want to kiss me?” Haru asked, sounding amused.

 

“Yes! I mean, no! I mean— _aargh!"_  Rin was already flustered because of the blowjob comment and now he’d gone and told Haru that he wanted to kiss him. Not that there wasn’t any truth in that statement but _ugh._ The bastard was probably enjoying watching Rin get riled up like this. Fine, then. Rin was not about to lose.

 

“We need to practice. Look, you might not know this but my mom is a total romantic—”

 

“That explains a lot.”

 

“ _Shut up_. So she might ask us to kiss for a photograph that she’ll keep to show her grandkids or something. I wouldn’t put it past her.”

 

Haru shrugged. “Then we’ll kiss for the photograph?”

 

“Haru, not to brag or anything but I have 100% confidence in my own kissing skills,” False, but no one needed to know that. “It’s you I’m worried about.”

 

Haru bristled at this, making his nose scrunch up slightly. Ah, it was kind of cute. “Don’t make that face… I was only kidding.”

 

“I can definitely kiss better than you.”

 

Rin gulped. He’d only meant the kissing thing as a joke. Now Haru had gotten it into his head that it was a contest or something. He didn’t see how he could get out of this situation with his emotions unscathed. After all, Haru wasn’t his real boyfriend. He was a friend, a rival, a _crush_. Someone to tease, to beat, to chase after. Haru didn’t think of Rin the same way.

 

“Geez, alright. You don’t have to prove it or anything.”

 

“I want to.”

 

Rin wasn’t sure he’d heard right. He forced himself to look at Haru, who was staring back at him with a sort of quiet determination. Was there… yes, there was definitely a dusting of pink on the other boy’s cheeks. It could have been from the cold, but just for this moment Rin let himself believe otherwise.

 

“ _You want to kiss me?_ ” Rin found himself mirroring Haru’s words from a few minutes ago in awe and disbelief.

 

As if in answer, Haru gently pulled his left hand out of Rin’s grasp — Rin realised with a start that they hadn’t let go all this time — and touched his cheek. He brought the other one to the back of Rin’s neck and brought his head down until their noses were touching.

 

“Yeah,” Haru breathed, and Rin could feel the warmth of it on his face, dizzyingly close.

 

Haru’s eyelids fluttered closed and Rin realised that he was waiting for something.  _Oh_.

 

He reached up and covered Haru’s hand with own, before squeezing his eyes shut and closing the gap.

 

  ***  *  ***

 

 

“Ha ha, so that happened!” Rin was honestly quite shocked that he still possessed the ability for coherent speech. He didn’t know how much time had gone by when they’d,  _God_ , when they’d kissed, but was fairly certain that it had crossed the line of pretend. Next to him, Haru remained silent. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it was a different sort of silence compared to the usual.

 

What was he supposed to say now? What could anyone say after kissing their childhood crush and the person that they were maybe a little bit in love with as hard as they’d always wanted?

 

(Somehow, Haru’s hand had found it’s way back to his. Rin didn’t know what to make of this.)

 

“I’d say we’re pretty prepared for my family now!” Rin said, for the sake of saying something. He hoped Haru couldn’t hear how fast his heart was beating.

 

“...Rin.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

A cool breeze ruffled their hair, and Haru squeezed his hand. “Let’s do our best.”

 

Rin felt the tight bundle of nerves inside his chest dissolving, despite himself. He cracked a smile.

 

“Yeah. Let’s show them a sight they’ve never seen before!”  

 

There was snow falling now, all around them. White fluff settled on top of Haru’s head, making his uncharacteristically soft expression impossibly softer. Or maybe that was just Haru. If Rin squinted, he could pretend the snowflakes were cherry blossom petals. It was pretty romantic.

 

(and maybe a bit hopeful)

  
  



End file.
